World: Protest on Trial

On Aug. 25, only four days after Soviet tanks moved into Czechoslovakia,
a small group of Russian dissenters in Moscow's Red Square unfurled
banners that said HANDS OFF CZECHOSLOVAKIA! and SHAME ON THE
INVADERS! Beaten, cursed and arrested by KGB (secret police) agents, they
were charged with making a public disturbance and slandering the Soviet
Union. After a three-day trial, a Moscow court two weeks ago imposed
terms of exile or imprisonment on the five defendants. By banning
foreign newsmen from the trial and by packing the small courtroom with
a specially selected...